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Fan Freedom Project Questions Pro-Ticketmaster Coalition's Motives

Consumer advocates, property rights activists and live-event fans across
Tennessee who oppose legislation supported by Ticketmaster have raised
serious concerns and questions about the motives of a statewide
coalition that is supporting the ticketing giant in Tennessee.

The Tennessee Sports & Entertainment Industry Coalition (TSEIC) released
a statement on Monday calling on Tennessee lawmakers to pass a
Ticketmaster-supported bill that thousands of Tennesseans, consumer
advocates and property rights activists strongly oppose because of
blatant anti-consumer and antitrust provisions, according to Fan Freedom
Project.

If passed, the Fairness in Ticketing Act (HB 3437/SB 3441) would deem
tickets as “revocable licenses” that “may be cancelled at any time, with
or without cause, by the ticket issuer.” The bill would also codify the
practice of restrictive ticketing methods, opening the door for
Ticketmaster and sports teams to force consumers to exclusively use
their resale sites to transfer tickets.

“We agree with the TSEIC that fans deserve protection and transparency
to help them make better purchasing decisions on the resale market, but
it's obvious that we need comprehensive reform that also addresses the
primary ticketing market,” said Jon Potter, president of Fan Freedom
Project. “The TSEIC's unwillingness to hold the primary market to the
same standards of transparency that they're calling for in the secondary
market is reason to believe that they are more concerned with corporate
economic self-interests rather than the fans.”

The high-profile group consists of more than 60 artists, venues and
entertainment organizations, most of which have contracts with
Ticketmaster or its parent company, Live Nation.

The legislation, which was introduced in March, is being reviewed next
Tuesday, Nov. 13, by members of the bill's study committee. Consumer
advocates and fans are hopeful that Tennessee's lawmakers will look to
other states for examples of balanced, pro-consumer legislation that
aims to solve ticketing problems. New York, for instance, recently
passed legislation requiring ticket issuers to give consumers the option
to purchase traditional, transferable tickets for events at which
restrictive tickets are being sold.

“As we've stated all along, we agree with the bill's supporters that
consumers deserve protection from deceptive ticket practices, and we
look forward to having the opportunity to work with them and the
legislature on ensuring that consumers have a fair shot at buying
tickets,” said Elizabeth Owen, former director of the Tennessee Consumer
Affairs Division and current consumer advocate for Fan Freedom Project.
“But this bill is a Trojan horse placed by Ticketmaster, concert
producers and teams to sneak restrictions on fans' rights into law and
monopolize the ticket resale market. To disguise it as pro-consumer
legislation backed by hometown country music stars misstates the facts
and underestimates the intelligence of consumers and legislators in
Tennessee.”

TSEIC claims that this bill is good for consumers; but public statements
from the group about the bill and why they support it are misleading,
according to many. Chris Grimm, communications director for Fan Freedom
Project, released the following analysis in response to claims made by
the TSEIC on Monday:

TDEIC MYTH #1: Scalpers routinely purchase some of the best seats
the second they go on sale by using illegal “bot” software for the sole
purpose of reselling tickets to make a profit. In using “bots,” scalpers
cut in line ahead of fans and deprive them of the chance to purchase
tickets at face value.

THE FACTS: As
we witnessed in a recent investigative report from Nashville, venues
and artists hold back up to 90 percent of allotted tickets for any
event, and even resell tickets to their own fans at inflated prices; but
they continue to blame bots for instant sellouts. Furthermore, Tennessee
already has a law that prohibits the use of bots; but it is rarely
enforced. Ticketmaster and its partners can easily identify bot
offenders for any given show, as we also witnessed in a
separate investigative report from Nashville; but they choose not to
pursue these offenders because they don't want the public to know about
the appalling number of ticket holdbacks.

TDEIC MYTH #2: Many ticket resellers do not disclose essential
information to consumers, preventing them from making informed purchase
decisions. Currently, resellers do not have to disclose whether they
have the tickets in hand, the face-value ticket price, the location of
the seats or that they are a ticket reseller.

THE FACTS: Fan Freedom Project and other consumer groups support
provisions in the bill that would require more transparency from ticket
resellers to help consumers make informed purchasing decisions. What the
Coalition and Ticketmaster don't want to address is comprehensive reform
that would create as much transparency in the primary market as it does
in the secondary market. Announcing how many tickets are available to
the general public after ticket holdbacks, for instance, would help
consumers make informed purchasing decisions.

TDEIC MYTH #3: Preserve consumer-friendly ticketing methods by
ensuring that fans have the best shot at the best seats at face-value
prices, and preserve the rights of artists, sports teams and venues to
use the ticketing methods they choose.

THE FACTS: Ticketmaster and its partners use the term
“consumer-friendly ticketing methods” as a euphemism for restrictive
paperless tickets – a method that is anything but fan-friendly. By being
able to use restrictive ticketing methods, Ticketmaster, teams and
artists are taking away fans' rights to do what they want with their
tickets. Ultimately, this is an attempt to eliminate competition in the
secondary market by forcing consumers to buy and sell unused tickets
exclusively on their resale websites, such as ticketsnow.com.

About Fan Freedom Project

Launched in February 2011, the Fan Freedom Project is supported by more
than 100,000 live-event fans, including more than 5,000 Tennesseans, and
is backed by leading consumer and business organizations such as the
American Conservative Union, National Consumers League, Consumer Action,
the Institute for Liberty, the League of Fans, the Computer and
Communications Industry Association, and Net Choice.